Senate

The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved two draft funding bills for fiscal 2018 that conflict with appropriation bills proposed by the House earlier this month. The House Appropriations Committee proposed flat funding for the National Science Foundation research programs and Department of Energy’s Office of Science. The Senate, however, is seeking to provide a…

The White House’s budget rollout last week sent shockwaves through the scientific community broadly and National Institutes of Health supporters specifically. President Donald Trump, in his “skinny budget” release, called for a $5.8 billion cut to the NIH’s budget, 19 percent of fiscal year 2016 appropriations for the agency. The cut came as a surprise…

As the new administration gets settled and sets its priorities, President Donald Trump and Congress presumably will be assessing how taxpayer dollars can be best utilized. In the coming month, Trump will begin to not only introduce a budget for the upcoming fiscal year but also push for specific initiatives that will require some…

The 115th Congress has begun its legislative work, and we’re five days into the presidency of Donald Trump. To say that Washington, D.C., is active in these early days of 2017 is an understatement. The focus of political leaders is not – shockingly – how to handle biomedical research and science policy over the next…

On Saturday, the U.S. Senate passed the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act. This bill authorizes programs at the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the Office of Science and Technology Policy. These programs include federal science, development and STEM programs. Below is a summary of sections of note: Title…

The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology held a congressional briefing Tuesday about the effects that a long-term continuing resolution would have on the biomedical research community. Speakers included Harry Stein, director of fiscal policy at the Center for American Progress; Thomas Baldwin, president-elect of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology…

Yesterday, both chambers of Congress approved a short-term continuing resolution spending bill (HR 5325) that will keep the federal government funded through Dec. 9. The resolution will fund federal agencies at the top-line, fiscal 2017 level of $1.067 trillion, reduced by 0.5 percent to comply with spending cap regulations. The Senate first approved the…

Lawmakers introduced three bills, one to the House and two to the Senate, aimed at solving aspects of the health funding crisis brought on by the Zika pandemic. Below is a brief synopsis of each bill. 1) On Sept. 8, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., introduced a bill to the Senate Committee on Health, Education,…

Congress returned to work last week after its summer recess. In the next month, Congress’ main priority will be to approve funding for the federal government in fiscal 2017. Congress’ inability to pass the 12 separate annual appropriation spending bills has resulted in it needing to approve a temporary spending bill, or continuing resolution,…

Congress reconvened Tuesday and will remain in session for four weeks. We expect that lawmakers will pass a continuing resolution to fund the government at least into December. If, by the off chance, lawmakers do not pass a continuing resolution and instead proceed to resolve their differences to pass an actual appropriations bill, we…